Eats

3 Surprising Health Benefits Of Beer

You probably have beer to thank for helping you meet your girlfriend, spurring some of your greatest stories, and bringing out your worst dance moves. But it turns out there are tons of other awesome, scientifically proven reasons to love a good old fashioned brew.

3. It Fights Off Infections

Having one or two drinks a day might boost your immune system and fight infections, according to an Oregon Health & Science University study. Scientists vaccinated monkeys against smallpox, then gave some of the primates access to alcohol while others could drink sugar water. The monkeys who drank moderately had better vaccine responses than those who consumed the sweet stuff.

But the animals that drank heavily—you may now imagine a totally tanked chimp—had less of a response to the vaccine than those who kept their habit under control.

2. It Decreases The Chance Of Diabetes

In 2011, Harvard researchers found that middle-aged men who drink one or two glasses of beer each day appear to reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by up to 25pc. Dr Michel Joosten, a visiting professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, studied 38,000 middle-aged men and concluded that the alcohol content in beer increases insulin sensitivity, which helps prevent diabetes. Additionally, beer is a good source of soluble fiber – a dietary material that helps to control blood sugar and plays an important role in the diet of people suffering from diabetes.

So, whether you’ve got diabetes or not, a glass of beer is just what the doctor ordered.

1. It Helps You Lose Weight

It may seem a strange one, considering we’ve named the ‘beer belly’ after the weighty effects of alcohol, but researchers at the State University of Oregon seem to think that beer can help you shed some pounds. The scientists published a study earlier this year showing that a compound called xanthohumol, commonly found in hops, can lower an individual’s chances of developing metabolic syndrome – a condition that indicates obesity, elevated blood pressure, increased blood sugar, and bad high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels.

Sadly, the researchers concluded that humans would have to drink over 3,500 pints of beer a day to feel the benefits of the ‘miracle’ compound – by which point they’d need a miracle just to be alive.